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DECISION No. 145/2004/QD-TTg OF AUGUST 13, 2004 ON MAJOR ORIENTATIONS FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE NORTHERN KEY ECONOMIC REGION TILL 2010, WITH A VISION TO 2020

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of December 25, 2001;

At the proposal of the Minister of Planning and Investment in Official Dispatch No. 7349/BKH-CLPT of December 1, 2003,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To approve major orientations for socio-economic development of the northern key economic region (NKER) till 2010, with a vision to 2020, to be executed in 8 provinces and centrally-run cities, including Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc and Bac Ninh, aiming to bring into play their potentials and advantages in geographical position and infrastructure in order to speed up socio-economic development of the NKER in an efficient and sustainable manner, which shall take the lead in the national industrialization and modernization as well as in the whole northern region and country in promoting and supporting other regions, especially those meeting with difficulties, to develop; take the lead in international cooperation and foreign investment attraction, closely combining socio-economic development with the enhancement and consolidation of national defense, security, social order and safety, and environmental protection.

Article 2.- Major development objectives:

1. To strive to attain an annual average GDP growth rate of 1.3 times the average national GDP growth rate in the 2006-2010 period and 1.25 times in the 2011-2020 period. To raise the region's contribution to the national GDP from 21% in 2005 to around 23-24% by 2010 and 28-29% by 2020.

2. To raise the annual average per-capita export value from USD 447 in 2005 to USD 1,200 by 2010 and USD 9,200 by 2020.

3. To raise the region's contribution to the national budget revenues from 23% in 2005 to 26% by 2010 and 29% by 2020.

4. To speed up technological renewal at an average rate of 20-25%/year, to take the lead in the modernization process, to reach the advanced technology rate of around 45%. To raise the percentage of trained laborers to around 55% by 2010.

5. To reduce the percentage of poor households to 1.5% by 2010 and under 0.5% by 2020, to reduce the unemployment rate to around 6.5% by 2010, and to continue controlling it at the permitted safety rate of 4%. To ensure that by 2010, 100% of urban population have access to tap water; around 90-95% of rural population use clean water; 100% of rural households have sanitary latrines; people can easily travel, enjoy good healthcare, go to school and raise their educational level.

6. To reduce the natural population growth rate to 1% by 2010 and under 0.8% by 2020. To control the average population growth (including mechanical migration impacts) at a rate not exceeding 1.5%. To ensure social discipline, order and safety, to maintain security and national defense; to ensure environmental sustainability in both urban and rural areas in the region.

Article 3.- Tasks and solutions to development of pivotal branches and sectors

1. New orientations of breakthrough nature

- To develop hi-tech branches and high-quality services such as software industry, informatics and automation equipment, and scientific research products into spearhead industries; to produce automatic equipment, robots, new materials and high-quality steel; to develop shipbuilding and machine-tool engineering industries.

- To expeditiously build and develop supporting industries which the NKER has competitive advantages in order to increase the added value of products and raise the competitiveness and efficiency in integration; mechanical industries of manufacturing equipment and accessories such as equipment for manufacturing automobiles, motorcycles, electric equipment and electronic components, motor engines and electric engines (especially high-capacity electric engines), etc.

To build a general economic zone in Van Don island district (Quang Ninh province), with high-quality marine eco-tourism and rearing in association with processing of sea specialties.

- To build a new industrial nursery (study for technical and technological innovations for industrial enterprises), to be located in Vinh Phuc province.

- To build a high-level job-training center for the whole region, to be located in Vinh Phuc province.

- To build a high-quality training center and study the construction of a high-quality multi-discipline university, to be located in Hung Yen province, after the model of associating training with industrial parks' factories along the direction that the latter have shares in training institutions, provide equipment supports and technical personnel for training, as required by a complete chain …

- To build high-quality medical centers for the whole region, to be located in Ha Tay and Hai Duong provinces.

- To build a general entrepụt, to be located in Hai Duong province.

- To build new expressways: Hanoi - Hai Phong (along the direction of Highway No. 5 being diverted south of the Red River delta); Noi Bai - Ha Long - Mong Cai; Hanoi - Ninh Binh; Lang - Hoa Lac - Trung Ha; Hanoi - Viet Tri; and Hanoi - Thai Nguyen.

- To build a new railway from Yen Vien, Hanoi city, to Pha Lai and Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province; and a railway connecting Hai Phong port with Dinh Vu port, Hai Phong city.

- To study for the construction of a new deep-water port in Hai Phong (if technical conditions permit).

- To build a subway and Hanoi-inner railway, and to connect Hanoi - Hoa Lac railway.

2. Planning adjustment orientations

To boost economic restructuring along the direction of industrialization and modernization, creating spearhead products, attached to the market, and raising the competitiveness. It is expected that the NKER's industrial and service percentage in GDP will reach around 94-95% by 2010 and 96-97% by 2020. To raise the percentage of non-agricultural laborers; to increase jobs with high productivity and less energy consumption; to use land efficiently on the basis of developing hi-tech branches and manufacturing products with high gray-matter contents.

2.1. Regarding industrial development

The principal products are structured to include high-value products with high gray-matter contents such as software and hardware techniques, electric and electronic techniques, equipment and machinery manufacture, ship building and repair, steel manufacture (alloy steel, plate steel, rolled steel, large-size profiled steel, high-intensity steel products used in prestressed concrete structures and manufactured steel), coal, cement, high-quality construction materials, processed agricultural, forestry and aquatic products, food, foodstuff, textiles, leather, garments, etc. At the same time, to bring into play the strengths of the support industry development region in order to raise the value of products; to develop new products with modern technologies in parallel with environmental protection; to develop agricultural, forestry and aquatic processing industries.

To pay special attention to development of cottage industry and handicrafts; to build up sustainable development models as well as traditional-craft villages and craft villages along the direction of developing export products, regarding this a specific advantage of the region.

To gradually relocate industrial establish-ments to hilly and poor-soil areas along the corridors of Highway No. 18 and Highway No. 21 in order to reduce the use of fertile land, which should be used for agricultural production, and avoid excessive industrial concentration in urban centers and residential quarters in delta areas. However, it is also necessary to take into account the development of clean industries in the region's provinces to ensure economic structure for efficient development.

2.2. Regarding services: To concentrate efforts on comprehensive development of services, especially high-quality and high-grade services in the domains of finance, banking, trade, tourism, science-technology, telecommunications, air transport and maritime transport; to develop the real estate, capital and securities markets; to efficiently bring into play financial and training institutions as well as high-quality health services.

To build scientific-technological, socio-cultural and health service centers of national, regional and international caliber.

To continue promoting the role of Hanoi capital, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh as international trade and transaction centers in order to assume the function of a trade service and tourist center of the northern region and the whole country as well.

To develop mass transit services (buses and tramcars) from Hanoi to other provinces (with a radius of around 60 km) in order to enhance linkage and exchange among provinces and cities.

2.3. Regarding agriculture, forestry and fisheries

To continue restructuring agriculture along the direction of producing high-quality and high-yield commodities, to create more value on each unit of agricultural and forestry land acreage in direct service of consumption demands of urban centers and industrial parks in the region and for export. To step up the application of biological technologies as well as post-harvest preservation and processing technologies. To form commodity production areas around urban centers. To attach importance to developing clean agriculture, to associate agricultural development with the building of new-type countryside on the basis of developing processing industry and household farm economy. To conduct economic restructuring along the direction of industrialization and modernization, to invest in aquaculture areas where high-quality commodities are produced; to step up development of marine culture in parallel with the building of marine conservation zones.

To develop raw-material forests, especially pit-props raw-material forests and coastal submerged forests. To efficiently exploit hilly areas, create coastal forest zones, conserve national landscapes and forest gardens. To strongly develop greeneries in urban centers and industrial parks.

Priority shall be given to investment in concentrated aquaculture areas where high-quality commodities are produced in the region's provinces; to step up the development of marine culture in parallel with the building of marine museum zones. To combine sea and coastal economies along the direction of developing aquatic- and sea-product fishing, culturing and processing as well as coastal afforestation. To build Hai Phong into a fisheries service, processing and export center of the whole northern region.

2.4. Regarding development of economic and social infrastructure systems, ensuring their synchronism and short-cut development

a/ Economic infrastructure system:

To continue to synchronously develop and modernize the road, railway, seaway, riverway and airway transport systems; especially to build deep-water ports and expressway networks, inner-Hanoi traffic system, as well as water supply and drainage systems for cities.

To develop the following new expressways: Hanoi - Hai Phong (along the direction of National Highway No. 5 being diverted to southern Red River delta); Noi Bai - Ha Long - Mong Cai; Hanoi - Ninh Binh; Lang - Hoa Lac - Trung Ha; Hanoi - Viet Tri and Hanoi - Thai Nguyen. To complete the building and upgrading of Hanoi belt-road III, the whole Thanh Tri bridge, National Highways No. 5, 10, 18, 21, 21B and 39, Yen Lenh bridge, Ho Chi Minh Road's section running through Ha Tay province; to build Hanoi belt-road IV and build in Hanoi new bridges spanning Red River such as Thuong Cat, Nhat Tan, Long Bien (railways), Me So… To continue to upgrade a number of road axes connecting expressways, cities and towns to ports, border gates and industrial parks.

To build a new railway from Yen Vien, Hanoi city, to Pha Lai, Ha Long city and Cai Lan port, Quang Ninh province; a railway connecting Hai Phong port with Dinh Vu port, Hai Phong city.

To continue to invest in renovating channels leading into Hai Phong port so that 10,000 DWT ships can enter and leave; to build a number of new wharves at Hai Phong port for receiving container-carriers. To continue to build Cai Lan port, phase II, to invest loading and unloading equipment with the handling capacity of 6.5-8 million tons/year by 2010 (7 wharves), which may receive 30,000-50,000 DWT ships.

To renovate and upgrade Quang Ninh's special-use port cluster, including Cua Ong, Mui Chua, Van Gia, Hon Gai tourist port, Hon Net and Con Ong transshipment ports with the total capacity of 6-7 million tons/year. To renovate Red River, including the renovation of Giang and Day river mouths, to build a container port in Phu Dong, Gia Lam, and Khuyen Luong port, Hanoi; to renovate and upgrade Quang Ninh - Hai Phong - Ninh Binh riverway route.

To build an international airport in Mieu Mon (Ha Tay). And at the same time, to efficiently exploit 3 existing airports (Noi Bai, Cat Bi and Gia Lam). To raise the capacity of Noi Bai airport to 6 million passengers/year by 2005 and 8-10 million passengers/year by 2010. To upgrade and modernize Cat Bi airport.

To modernize and upgrade existing railways, first of all Hanoi - Hai Phong rail line, to build international-standard two-way railways. To soon form light railway system in service of urban traffic and region connection, with priority given to a light railway from Ha Dong, Ha Tay province, to Nga Tu So, Nguyen Chi Thanh and Ngoc Khanh, Hanoi city; in the long term, to develop it to Hoa Lac, Ha Tay province, linking to Hai Duong city, Hai Duong province, to the east… To build a new railway from Yen Vien, Hanoi city, to Pha Lai, Ha Long and Cai Lan, Quang Ninh province; a railway connecting Hai Phong port with Dinh Vu port, Hai Phong city.

To modernize electric transmission and telecommunications networks.

To perfect water supply and drainage systems; to build clean water supply systems meeting the demands of Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ha Long as well as tourist zones, industrial parks, new urban centers, and Van Don general economic zone. To renovate water drainage and waste-water treatment systems, to definitively settle water-logging in urban centers, especially in Hanoi.

To build environmental protection works; when building factories or industrial parks, waste treatment works must be built simultaneously to ensure that they do not cause environmental pollution. To study for building waste dumping sites and waste treatment factories for urban centers.

b/ To develop social infrastructure systems

To build cultural-activity centers in order to restore and bring into play the value of traditional cultural activities and put these activities into order. To maintain social order and safety, to build up growth psychology in the entire society; to minimize social evils and traffic accidents.

To invest in upgrading the central television tower in order to raise the quality of radio and television broadcast programs.

To develop medical establishments, equipment and services to meet various demands of not only population in the region but also foreigners working in joint ventures and tourists. To build high-quality medical centers, ensuring advanced and modern medical equipment, avoiding the concentration in Hanoi.

To develop and step by step raise the capacity of material and technical foundations in service of education cause to raise people's intellectual level, train human resources and foster talents in service of the national socio-economic development.

To build a safe and healthy economic-social-natural environment for children.

c/ To develop the system of urban centers as well as industrial parks and hi-tech parks

- For Hanoi: To develop it to be worthy of the country's heart, a big international political, cultural, scientific and educational, economic and service center. To further well implement the Politburo's Resolution No. 15-NQ/TW of December 15, 2000, the National Assembly Standing Committee's Ordinance on Hanoi Capital (No. 29/2000/PL-UBTVQH10 of December 28, 2000) so that Hanoi can become a modern city; to concentrate intensive investment in inner city. To relocate industries, especially polluting industries, far from inner city (with synchronous measures for environmental protection), in association with the formation of satellite towns and new urban quarters such as Bac Thang Long, Nam Thang Long, Bo De (Gia Lam), Yen Vien, Linh Dam etc, closely linking to adjacent urban centers such as Hoa Lac, Xuan Mai, Ha Dong, Son Tay, Hung Yen, Pho Noi, Me Linh, Vinh Yen, Bac Ninh and Phu Ly, forming a cluster of satellite urban centers.

- For Hai Phong: To well implement the Politburo's Resolution No. 32-NQ/TW of August 5, 2003 on building and developing Hai Phong city in the national industrialization and modernization period. The population size of inner city may reach 750-900 thousand people by 2010. To build a new urban center in the north of Cam river, Thuy Nguyen rural district, Hai Phong city.

To strongly develop infrastructures, industries and services in order to bring into play the function of a class-1 urban center for the whole region.

- For Ha Long: The population size of inner city shall reach 390-400 thousand people by 2010. To expand mainly towards Hon Gai - Cam Pha. To strongly develop infrastructure, tourist and industrial services in order to bring into play the function of a class-2 urban center for Quang Ninh province and the whole region.

- To step up the development of the chain of Mieu Mon, Xuan Mai, Hoa Lac and Son Tay urban centers.

- For the development of industrial parks and hi-tech parks: To speed up the construction under plannings and put Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park into operation. In the immediate future, to concentrate efforts on creating convenient grounds and apply open and flexible policies to attract domestic and foreign investment in order to fill up the existing industrial parks. To put an end to the construction of industrial parks and factories along big highways; to review plannings on construction of industrial parks of the whole region in order to ensure the sustainable and balanced development. To plan the synchronous construction of population quarters and social infrastructure works in service of industrial parks. To prepare conditions for developing a number of industrial parks or industrial clusters or inter-clusters along National Highway No. 18 with major industries being heavy industry; agricultural and fishery product processing industries; food processing industry; and consumer goods producing industry.

- For other cities and towns with a population size of around between 150 and 200 thousand people each, which are capitals, economic, cultural or political centers or towns of provinces or economic centers of a region, they shall also be developed in association with the whole region's urban system. At the same time, those areas along national highways' axes and in densely-populated commodity production areas, and townships shall also be upgraded and formed more under the uniform plannings.

The provinces and cities shall attach importance to construction and development of small- and medium-sized industrial clusters as well as traditional craft villages in rural areas, and to ecological environment protection.

3. Mechanisms and policies

To improve mechanisms and seek solutions to attracting more capital sources for development of the NKER. To take measures to encourage the entire society as well as domestic and foreign investors to invest in production and business activities, aiming to attain economic growth targets in association with social targets, bring into play the region's potentials and advantages. To better manage the housing and land market in order to raise the land-use efficiency and create capital from land funds, contributing to reducing input costs for producers.

To well implement the Resolution of the Party Central Committee's third plenum, to raise the efficiency of renewal of State enterprises so that they can bring into play their efficiency in the region's economic development. To enhance supports for newly-set up enterprises; to encourage non-State economic sectors to invest in infrastructure development.

To speed up the administrative reform in the State administrative management sector.

To quickly perfect the mechanism of financial and budget management decentralization between the central and local levels and among functional agencies in financial management, ensuring the uniformity of the national financial system and the central level's pivotal role, and at the same time to raise the active role in financial administration of localities in the region and branches within the ambit of their assigned responsibilities.

To enhance financial and budget publicity at all levels; to continue to renew financial preferential and support policies for implementation of social policies and creation of jobs for laborers.

To encourage all economic sectors to actively invest in development and renew investment structure along the direction of encouraging the reservation of 50-55% of social investment for production/business development, 9-10% of social investment for human resource development, and 35-36% of transport investment capital for development of class-I and -II roads as well as expressways.

Article 4.- Humane resource training

To step up the training of human resources, especially high-quality human resources, to strongly socialize education.

To study for the building of a high-level job-training center for the whole region.

To reorganize the system of training establishments (universities, colleges and vocational schools) in Hanoi and Hai Phong, linking them with Red River delta region, midland and mountainous areas and the region. From now till 2010, thousands of talented businesspeople and around 300,000-350,000 skilled technical laborers should be trained for the national economy's branches and for export; to train a contingent of high-skilled policy makers; and apply policies on employment of talents.

Article 5.- The ministries, the ministerial-level agencies, the Government-attached agencies and the People's Committees of the provinces and cities in the NKER shall have to examine and closely monitor the implementation of major orientations for socio-economic development of the NKER, and draw up 5-year and annual plans as well as appropriate development investment programs and projects.

The Coordinating Committee for development of key economic regions shall direct the Ministry of Planning and Investment to coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches as well as the local People's Committees in reviewing the development plannings in the whole region for practical and efficient implementation. In the immediate future, to concentrate efforts on reviewing the general planning on socio-economic development of the whole NKER, especially plannings on development of urban centers, economic corridors, industrial parks and seaport systems etc; reviewing the provincial socio-economic development plannings in order to adjust them to suit the new development situation. After reviewing the general plannings, the concerned branches and localities should soon implement detailed plannings, and promptly notify various levels and people thereof.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the concerned ministries, branches and localities in, implementing key investment programs and projects.

The ministries and central branches shall have to coordinate with and assist the provinces and cities in the NKER in reviewing, and organizing the implementation of, the set programs and projects, ensuring that the planning of each province or city shall be in line with the plannings of the region and the country.

Article 6.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette and replaces the Prime Minister's Decision No. 747/TTg of September 11, 1997 approving the general planning on socio-economic development of the northern key economic region in the 1996-2010 period.

Article 7.- The presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities in the NKER, the ministers, the heads of the concerned ministerial-level agencies and the heads of the concerned Government-attached agencies shall have to implement this Decision.

Prime Minister
PHAN VAN KHAI